Kenny Duncan experience. Not very happy with mine.

Eruera · Post by **Eruera** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 9:25 pm

I've only has good experiences with weta over the past 5 or so years, the one mistake (tiny) they made was quickly rectified with no hassle.

Vince · Post by **Vince** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 10:31 pm

Eruera wrote:I've only has good experiences with weta over the past 5 or so years, the one mistake (tiny) they made was quickly rectified with no hassle.

I quite like Weta too. I normally take things to our own Tod (Polar Bear) at MusicPlanet but if he's going to be busy or it's too major a job, then it's definitely Weta.

Jackangus · Post by **Jackangus** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 10:44 pm

Looks like weta it is the next time my guitar needs a bit of attention.
Cheers guys.

Jackangus · Post by **Jackangus** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 11:10 pm

Scooter13 wrote:
Gibson LP Trads are supposed to come out of the factory plekked and setup perfect fret wise. If there was a problem I would of gone straight back to the Rockshop before you had external work done on it.

I'm only taking Kenny Duncans word that the fret board needed leveled. I have spoke to a few people and they reckon there is a few things before leveling the fret board that could be to blame for fret buzz.
But I know completely nothing so I took what he said as gospel, and he also knew I was a complete newbie too.
I'm not saying it didn't need done, but maybe I didn't .
Kenny maybe should have said exactly that, take it back to the rockshop and get them to look at it first. He knew the guitar was only 6 weeks when he was doing the work. He told me they never come perfect from Gibson,and you cant expect the rockshop guys to carry the can.
I will definitely try to learn to do some stuff myself which will save me time and money in the future.

alanp · Post by **alanp** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 11:53 pm

Definitely raises questions. KD seems to be either hot or cold.

Whenever I visit my luthier (David Pitt), either I get him at a bad time (ie, during tea time which is completely understandable to me, but it's either that, or wait a week till we are both not busy), or the vastly more likely is that I get him at a good time, and we have a good old yarn. One time he had heaps of fun showing me lots of videos on Youtube.

One stuck in my memory -- "Alan, watch what his hands are doing here." "I can't, the video codec can't keep up!"

Aquila Rossa · Post by **Aquila Rossa** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 2:14 am

i am surprised a $3.6k gat is not in good shape, but then again i am not. they get strings changed etc by the boy in the shop usually, as well as grubby tire kicker paws all over them. My traditional that just came from the states brand new and still factory packed was absolutely perfect even after the flight etc. All i had to do was tune up and it played like a dream. PLEK is amazing because the frets feel really good. RS surely should be taking better care of new players and not letting stuff like that slip. Kenny bloke sounds like he may not have his act together at this time. perhaps personal stuff or something. his loss. Glynn always has done great work and good service for me up here in AK, so i always go back. that's the way it works.

As far as naming and shaming goes, i think it is better to give he person a change to put things right first; which you did. everybody has bad days. it is patterns of this kind of thing or failure to do the job properly after complaint that deserves naming and shaming in some cases

p,s, "Kenny Duncan Experience" sounds like the name of a psychedelic alt country band

Jackangus · Post by **Jackangus** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 11:20 am

I think there is quite a few people missing the point of this thread.
This thread is about letting people know about the bad service I got from Kenny Duncan, not about my lack of knowledge about what the rock shop would have done for me if I had taken the guitar back to them.
The guitar needed a restring and they only gave me 20% of the new strings they put on, so I wasn't thinking they would be overly generous about fret buzz, but I could have been wrong.
Regardless, Kenny Duncan did a very poor job first time, and followed up with some atrocious customer service.
I will know next time if I buy a guitar from the rockshop I can take it back to get these type of things fixed, free of charge.

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 12:03 pm

I have no input to give to the pros & cons of this luthier, other than to say that on the face of it, you were given very poor service and I think you have every right to complain and also to highlight this for others.

However, I think that you could enhance your guitaring enjoyment by doing some reading and YouTubing to improve your knowledge of guitar set-ups. The basics of set-ups are not difficult and although I totally agree that some jobs are best left to the experts, there is a lot that any of us can do by ourselves to ensure that minor things like fret buzz are eliminated. I liken that to taking a car to a mechanic because the oil level is low. Its basic maintenance and each of us should be able to do it for ourselves.

Edited to add: my bass player has been playing as long as me and that's a long time. However, he still takes his instruments to the music shop to have the strings changed. I recently got him to get a tuner, the first one he's ever had in over 50 years of playing. It took him ages to understand how to use it (I know), but now he's completely buzzing 'cos he knows he's in tune. There are people like this around.

Vince · Post by **Vince** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 12:18 pm

Rog wrote:
However, I think that you could enhance your guitaring enjoyment by doing some reading and YouTubing to improve your knowledge of guitar set-ups. The basics of set-ups are not difficult and although I totally agree that some jobs are best left to the experts, there is a lot that any of us can do by ourselves to ensure that minor things like fret buzz are eliminated. I liken that to taking a car to a mechanic because the oil level is low. Its basic maintenance and each of us should be able to do it for ourselves.

But that's exactly what the OP is complaining about in the post above yours. Ok, maybe he could have learnt how to do his own setup, but it still doesn't change that he got bad service from someone. And ok, it might be like "taking a car to a mechanic because the oil level is low" but, if you do that, you don't expect half the oil to be spilled onto your (front) fender and for the mechanic to be a twat about it.

Personally, I can't be arsed setting up my own stuff. I'd rather someone else look at it.

Rog wrote: Edited to add: my bass player has been playing as long as me and that's a long time. However, he still takes his instruments to the music shop to have the strings changed. I recently got him to get a tuner, the first one he's ever had in over 50 years of playing. It took him ages to understand how to use it (I know), but now he's completely buzzing 'cos he knows he's in tune. There are people like this around.

Yeah, but he's not necessarily in tune all the way up the neck. You still have to do a "smoke test", even with a tuner.

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 12:43 pm

LOL Vince, have you taken a grumpy pill today?

I addressed your first point in my first paragraph.

As for the second, of course intonation needs to be set etc, my point had nothing to do with that, it was to show that even experienced musos (his band won the national BoTB in 1969) can still not know about what most of us consider to be very basic things.

Molly · Post by **Molly** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 12:52 pm

One thing I would love to feel confident about is refretting and nut replacement. I get the Stew-Mac magazine every month with all these wonderful tools that are now available to help with the task but I feel I'd still be biting off more than I could chew. Can't think of anything else I wouldn't take on. It'd just take me at least twice as long as a professional.

Vince · Post by **Vince** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 1:08 pm

Rog wrote:even experienced musos (his band won the national BoTB in 1969) can still not know about what most of us consider to be very basic things.

Oh, tell me about it.

Going to open mike nights, you see all sorts of people, including some that have to be shown what that little silver hole on their guitar is for before they can plug in (I kid you not)

Personally, I've stopped caring about pretty much all gear things. I think the last electronic thing I bought was a compressor, before deciding that it made more sense to concentrate on having a really even attack. Acoustics make life so much easier.

Tuners I have a real distrust of, they're good to get a starting note but other than that, I find I still have to do a lot of by-ear tuning as well.

Eruera · Post by **Eruera** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 1:12 pm

Rog wrote:LOL Vince, have you taken a grumpy pill today?

Made me snort

Bradman · Post by **Bradman** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 2:45 pm

Kenny does seem to be a bit hit or miss.

As I said in the other thread, I've had two mates have really good work done by him on multiple guitars and a bass. But I always go to Weta when I need something done which I can't do myself.

I think he just gets overwhelmed, he is the first to tell you he's the best around and take shots at other places like Weta. But his shop is tiny and he doesn't seem to have the space or time to get everything done. Maybe if he had somebody else there to help out with the simpler stuff, he may loosen up a bit ha.

Jackangus · Post by **Jackangus** » Sat Jul 05, 2014 2:55 pm

Bradman wrote:Kenny does seem to be a bit hit or miss.

As I said in the other thread, I've had two mates have really good work done by him on multiple guitars and a bass. But I always go to Weta when I need something done which I can't do myself.

I think he just gets overwhelmed, he is the first to tell you he's the best around and take shots at other places like Weta. But his shop is tiny and he doesn't seem to have the space or time to get everything done. Maybe if he had somebody else there to help out with the simpler stuff, he may loosen up a bit ha.

I agree, he seems so stressed the times I have seen him. His shop is only open about 30 hours a week, great working hours if you ask me.
If he can't get the work done then he should up his hours.
You can't have your cake and eat it , or maybe he can.

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